By Helen

05/20/2016

some girls get diamonds…

Some girls get diamonds: my husband got me a paint chart. And I can’t tell you how happy I am! Often when I am looking for colour inspiration I turn to Mother Nature, she just gets it so right: well so do the lovely people in Scandinavia, especially those in Norway. Last year, when Si and me visited Norway I was blown away by the WHOLE country. I expected to fall in love with the culture and outdoor lifestyle, what I didn’t quite expect to fall in love with was the colour of the buildings…

Reds, blues, oranges, greens, whites (in every shade), the buildings just oozed colour. The colour was simply inspirational. I loved it. Naturally I wanted to recreate the colour in crochet work. So, I needed yarn that reflected the colours of the buildings. Early one morning, while in Norway, Si went out for a walk. He came back beaming with the fact that he had found me a present. My lovely, lovely, man had been into a DYI store and in his best Norwegian (which is actually very good) explained to the bewildered man about his wife’s love of colour. He came back with colour charts…

What better way for me to colour match my yarn, to the colours of Norway, than through a paint chart…

Some girls get diamonds: me, I’m happy with a colour chart!

20 May 2016 09:29:14 | inspiration, Travel

05/11/2016

crochet granny squares and beyond…

Yay! Busy back with crochet! I’m busy getting ready for my next crochet workshop. On 21^st May I’ll be running a crochet workshop for some lovely people at The Silver Thimble, just outside York. This will be the second crochet workshop that I have run, in the last couple of months; this one will focus on crocheting granny squares and crocheting them into something fabulous. I’ve designed the workshop so anyone can join, anyone: those with no crochet experience, those with lots of crochet experience – there will be something for everyone. All are welcome! If you'd love to come and crochet yourself a granny square, joining details are at the bottom of this post...

The workshop is £20.00 and runs from 10:00 – 14:00. If you are interested in coming to this crochet workshop then either message me, via my Facebook page HERE or contact Kath at The Silver Thimble.

See you on the 21^st!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

11 May 2016 08:48:09 | 1st post of the month, Crochet, How to..., York

04/20/2016

Spring and the garden…

It’s lovely and sunny, chilly but sunny, here in York. What’s the weather like with you? Over the last few days I have finally got out to play in the garden. For those of you, who have read my blog before, will know that by garden I mean yard: as I live in a small terrace house near to the city centre, nevertheless yard means garden to me. Oh, yes, work in the garden has begun, waking it up from its Winter sleep: pots have been washed, paving has been washed, plants have been pruned and plants potted on into my makeshift cold frame. Spring has defiantly sprung…

20 Apr 2016 09:45:24 | garden, Home

04/09/2016

stand and stare…

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

I’ve loved this William Henry Davis poem ever since I was a little girl. I was first introduced to it at primary school; I must have been about eight. I learnt the poem off by heart and it has stayed with me all my life. The poem is particularly important to be at the moment, I am slowly, slowly, reconnecting with my making and trying slowly, slowly to slow down. I’m making the effort to stand and stare, each and every day; to stop and watch as the world goes by, to notice the small details that can be so easily missed; the squirrels and the stars...

Make sure you take some time out to stand and stare this weekend…

9 Apr 2016 10:27:15 | inspiration

04/02/2016

reconnections and reflections…

Wow! It has been a whole month since I was here in blogland: I think that it the longest I’ve been away since I came here. March was a strange month: I had a nasty bug that really wiped me out, I had to deal with a few family things and my day job is crazy-busy at the moment. Now, it is time for me to reconnect with my making: I plan to take this reconnection slowly, slowly with the aim of normality resuming by the end of April. Spring is the season of new starts. Right? My reconnection is starting with me looking over past projects, spending time looking at inspiring books and in inspiring places. And dear-readers, I’m taking you along on this journey. So we are starting with some past projects…

Spring, a time for new starts…

Roses, (one of) the loveliest of flowers…

Sunflowers, (one of the) happiest of flowers…

Old for new, updating clothes…

Pretty Primulas…

Happy Hellebores…

Spring garlands…

A bit reflective, I know: it is helping with the reconnection. See you next week, lovelies….

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

2 Apr 2016 09:16:45 | 1st post of the month, Crochet

03/01/2016

March musings…

Happy St. David’s day! Today, the first day of March, the weather in York has taken a turn back towards Winter. This is in complete contrast with the last few days which have been absolutely gorgeous, with a real hint of Spring in the air. Perhaps March is coming in like a lion, so she leaves like a lamb? On a grey day like today I thought that I’d try to cheer us all up, sharing the pictures that I have taken over the last few days. Ready? Good…

I think that today, I’ll get my Spring wreath out of the cupboard and put it up in anticipation…

I’ll write up the Daffodil crochet pattern, very soon, so that you can crochet yourself a little bit of Spring…

1 Mar 2016 09:39:22 | 1st post of the month, inspiration, Seasons

02/24/2016

back to crochet…

Good morning lovelies! It’s a sunny morning here is York, cold: but with the optimism of Spring in the air. I hope that it is sunny, wherever you are reading this? For the first time in too long I sat down with my crochet hook and spent some serious time crocheting! I had to share my crochet with you, as it has been an absolute age since I did that. With Spring in the air, I was inclined to crochet roses. A while ago, I crocheted A LOT of roses, do you remember? This time I decided to crochet small little roses, using my 2mm hook and DMC Petra…

I crocheted to teeny-tiny blossms…

Then the roses! Oh how I love, loVE, LOVE, these roses. I’ll share the pattern with you, very soon. I decided that I would turn my crocheted rose into a bookmark, by adding a stem and some leaves…

What do you think? I didn’t stop there…

I surprised myself how much a enjoyed using a 2mm hook: my 4mm is normally my go-to hook, I think for a while my crochet maybe going smaller!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

24 Feb 2016 10:46:13 | Crochet

02/09/2016

inspiration for 2016: part two…

I am so very sorry that I have been so quiet here in blogland: I have been very busy. I’ve been working hard in my real life job and on a very exciting project in my creative life: I’m looking forward to sharing this with you very, very soon! Hopefully over the next few days and weeks, something like normality will return and I’ll be back here in blogland every week. Promise!

For now, here is the second part of my inspiration for 2016, which I started in in my last post.

I hope that you find that as inspirational?

9 Feb 2016 10:03:22 | 1st post of the month, inspiration

01/20/2016

inspiration for 2016…

I thought that I share with you some photographs that I am going to be returning to throughout 2016, as my sources of inspiration...

I hope that you find that as inspirational?

More to follow next week…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

20 Jan 2016 10:56:29 | inspiration

01/06/2016

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! I hope that you had a lovely Christmas and continue to have all your wishes met in 2016. Important question: did you stay dry? I should explain, in case you haven’t seen pictures of the terrible weather that the UK has been experiencing, large parts of the UK have suffered from bad flooding over the Christmas period. So many people have been affected; my heart goes out to every single one of them. Here is York, where byhelen is based, has also been badly hit: with the two rivers, the Foss and the Ouse, both breaching their banks and flooding back into the city. In large parts of the city people and out of their homes as the clean-up starts and small business have been affected as visitors choose to stay away from city centre. If you are visiting York, it is very much open, please come as support our amazing independent traders.

I am luckier than lots of people in the city; the flood touched my door-step, but didn’t, this time, make it into my home. I am so very grateful for this. My home was saved, this time, because of sandbags and the amazing community spirt, that we repeated see in the Bishy Road area of York. My home was saved, this time, because of an amazing group of people from a mosque in Batley. These amazing people, drove to Cumbria (all ready badly affected by flooding,) and decided that people there were getting help, so they decided to come to York and help us. They spent the day in our area helping move sandbags to protect streets and homes and offering support to all. They came back two days later, to make sure that we were still ok. We were. I can’t thank these wonderful people enough...

In all the devastation of the flooding, the sense of community shone through and York, despite what Mother Nature was throwing at her, remained as beautiful as ever…